Myrnin and Claire tragic love story
by PrincessElextra
Summary: This is a tragic love story of how i think Claire and Myrnin should be together as im not team Shane , hope you like BTW i have written this with ideas from different story's that i have found not copied and it is not yet completed so please review and give me other ideas BTW im also not very creative with intimacy so i borrowed a 50 shades of gray idea and altered it a lot.
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fan fic please don't hate me that much , this is set during bite club , review after you've read thanks 3

sunlight warmed my face, streaming in from the window opposite my bed. I sighed and buried myself deeper into the warm mass of blankets, safe and secure. In that brief moment as I woke up I was utterly peaceful, I had forgotten where I was, forgotten who I was and the only thing that mattered was that I was safe. But I wasn't. I couldn't be, no truly ever safe, not here. I frowned, unhappy that my own thoughts had ruined my parting contentedness. I let out another sigh and rolled over, searching with my hand for the beautiful boy who was my lover. My heart pounding, I realized I couldn't find him and shot up in bed looking to see where he was. No one was there. Silly me I thought to myself, of course he's not here, not after the things I said to him last night. I shut my eyes and dropped back onto the bed willing the images to stop racing across my eyes.

I heard the front door open and lifted my head off the couch in time to see Shane walk through the door, carrying a take-out bag and smelling of barbeque. I smiled at him and waved.

"Dinner?" I called out questioningly.

"Not for you sleepy head," he said teasingly, pulling the box away from my outstretched fingers.I rocked back on my heels, crossing my arms and glaring at him, my lips pulled back into a pout.

"Don't be angry with me, a man's gotta eat!" he said, a smirk starting to spread across his face. I changed my expression into my best puppy-dog face, staring up at him expectantly, willing him to hand over the box.

"Not fair Claire, you know I just can't resist that face!" he said, his expression deepening. I blinked once and tilted my head to the side and said in my most innocent voice, "What face?" He leaned forward to kiss me, dropping the box onto the table, the food forgotten. He kissed me lightly at first, but I quickly deepened turning into something more. I pulled him back towards the living room and pushed him onto the couch, settling myself in his lap without ever breaking the kiss. Eventually we pulled apart for air keeping our noses toughing, staring into each other's eyes. This must be love I thought, this must be it because I have never been happier in my entire life.

"I love you," I whispered to him.

"I love you too," he whispered back, reaching up with his hands to pull my face back to his.

"Whoa there guys, let's keep it PG, after all we do have a minor in the house," said Eve jokingly. I jumped up off the couch, my face reddening in embarrassment. Shane stayed sitting, eyes sparkling and lips pulled back into an adorable smile.

"Your just jealous cuz Mikey's not home," he responded. Eve rolled her eyes, flipped him the finger and walked into the kitchen.

"You know what, I think that it's you who is missing Michael. Don't worry I won't tell anyone about your bro-mance!" she called out laughing.

"Yeah like I'd ever like some bloodsucker like that," he muttered.

"Hey," I said glaring at him, "Michael's your friend. I thought you were past this."

"Don't worry," he said pulling me back into his lap, "It's nothing against Michael, just the thought of liking a vamp in general." I sighed not convinced.

"Honestly, I'm over it," he said leaning in to finish where we left off. Just as his lips once again met mine my phone went off with an annoying shrill.

"Ignore it," he grumbled and kept on kissing me. I let him for a moment longer and then twisted myself out of his grasp and grabbed my phone off the table. I flipped it open and checked the caller-ID….Myrnin.

"Let me guess, it's your stupid vampire boss, isn't it?" Shane said, the anger evident in his voice. I shot him a look and answered.

"Hello?"

"Claire, you can't have tomorrow off. I would say I'm sorry but I'm not. Be here at 6 o'clock sharp no exceptions and if you're late I'll eat you," Myrnin's voice answered sharply from the other side.

"But….." I started to say but stopped when I heard him click off on the other end.

"Ahhh, stupid Myrnin, I hate you," I said dropping back onto the couch and began massaging my temples with my fingers.

"What now?" asked Shane.

"Myrnin's making me go into work tomorrow," I said.

"But tomorrow is my day off and I thought we were going to go see a movie together."

"I'm sorry Shane but I can't, we'll just have to go next week," I said to him, averting my eyes.

"No," he said, standing up, "We are going to the movies. You'll just have to call him back and tell him that you can't work. Or better yet just don't go to the lab tomorrow."

"Shane, come on now, you know I can't do that! He'd kill me, or Amelie would. I can't just blow off my job!"

"Yes you can!" he stated back.

"No Shane I can't and you shouldn't expect me to!" I yelled at him.

"You know what, I'm starting to think that maybe there is another reason why you keep doing everything that crazy bloodsucker commands."

I froze, anger turning everything into sharp focus, "Just what are you implying, Shane."

"I'm not implying anything, I'm flat out stating that I think you're cheating on me with him," Shane said, eyes flashing with hurt and rage.

"I cannot believe you just said that to me! Out of all the ridiculous things-!"

"It's not ridiculous! I've seen the way he looks at you! Don't tell me you don't see it too! At first I wasn't worried because you always acted like he wasn't important but lately you started looking back at him," he stopped, turning away from me. I knew I should feel bad but I was just too angry and I couldn't seem to be able to lock the anger away.

"So you're saying that if I look at my boss then I must be cheating on you with him. Really Shane, do you know how stupid that sounds, do you even hear yourself?" I shot back questioningly.

"It's the way you stare into his eyes…" he said but stopped, sounding hurt and confused. I immediately felt bad for implying that he was stupid. He's just hurt I thought, he's only acting like this because he loves me.

"I can't believe you could ever look some disgusting…thing like that in the eyes," he muttered. That's when I snapped. I had never felt so enraged in my entire life. How could he have so much hate and prejudice in his heart, especially with how wrong he had been proven in recent events? In that one second I hated him, just for a fraction of a second I hated what he was and how he acted. It was really the smallest possible fraction but that's all it took, I wanted to hit him where it hurt and I knew just how to do it.

"Well he does have pretty eyes. Maybe I just wanted to look at something beautiful after having to look at you all day," I stated, my voice flat and eyes burning.

His expression was pure pain, pure innocent, unneeded, unnecessary pain.

My stomach twisted and I wanted to take it back, take it all back and wrap myself back into his arms and tell him just how much I loved and needed him. But I knew I never could and it felt terrible, like someone was repeatedly stabbing me in the stomach over and over again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it, I really didn't" I whispered, searching his eyes for any sign that he might forgive me. There was none, his faced had twisted into the most unnerving mask of hate that was directed entirely at me, the anger turning his normally soft features cold and sharp. I knew it wasn't the content of the insult that hurt him the most but the fact that I had said that Myrnin, a vampire, a vampire who had tried to kill me on numerous occasions was better than him.

"Get out of my sight," he stated, but his voice was wrong, it wasn't him, it was anger.

"Shane…" I said helplessly, begging him with my eyes to forgive me.

"No," he said bluntly, "Get out of my sight."

No longer able to hold back the tears, I burst out crying and pushed past a very shocked Eve and ran up the stairs and into my room, slamming and locking the door behind me. I sank to the floor in a heap, my head a whirl of emotions and cried until the world had no more meaning.

I awoke sometime later to Eve knocking on my door asking me if I was alright and if she could come in. I chose to ignore her and simply stripped down to my underwear and climbed into my empty bed. I tried to escape the pain and fall into the peaceful numbness of sleep but every time I closed my eyes images of Shane's pained face came into my mind, staring back at me. I sobbed harder and curled myself into the tightest ball I possibly could, trying to make myself so microscopic that I would disappear. I stayed that way, sobbing and shaking, for I don't know how long until exhaustion overtook my fear and gently pulled me into the oblivion.

Depressed, I rolled onto my other side so that I was facing the wall and tried to make my mind once again blank so that I might be able to slip back into the realm of oblivion. I sighed again because I knew that was pointless. I would never be able to forget, not for a single second. I turned and looked at the clock. It read 10:27. Late, and just a little late, 4 and half hours late. Myrnin really was going to kill me this time. Oh well, if I'm already that drastically late I really don't need to go at all. Guess I wasn't going to work after all, how ironic.

I rolled my eyes and snuggled back into my bed, just because I can't sleep doesn't mean I can't stay in bed all day. Besides, I'm far too overdue for a mental health day. I stared at the door willing Shane to walk through it and tell me he everything was going to be alright, that he forgave me and all was well. But I knew the truth, that was never going to happen. I ruined the best thing in my life and it was no one else's fault but my own.

"Great job Claire," I said to myself, "You really know how to hurt people don't you?"

woke up to a buzzing sound vibrating through my ears. I groaned and rolled over, reaching to hit my alarm. I hit the button, but the buzzing didn't stop. Surprised I sat up and hit it again before I realized that the buzzing wasn't coming from any electronic.

A portal.

I had just enough time to process that thought before Myrnin came striding into my room wearing tight black skinny jeans and a pair of red trainers under his signature old-fashioned, Victorian, black coat. He was, of course, topless under this coat and I unwillingly found myself starting at his well defined stomach.

"You're late," he said in a flat voice, "I told you not to be late." I flicked my eyes up to meet his soulless brown ones and was surprised to see that he actually looked offended.

"Uhhh…I…was, well I was…umm," I stuttered.

"Yes, yes, you were supposed to have the day off. Blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you'll inform me of your opinion whether I like it or not. Buuuut," his voice took on a sickly sweet edge and his eyes slid shamelessly to my chest, "Perhaps you should get dressed first."

With a gasp I yanked the sheets up to cover my chest realizing that I too was topless. I felt my face heat up and quickly cast my eyes to the floor my embarrassment rendering me speechless. He let out a rich laugh.

"My, oh my, I think my little bird is self conscious," he said darkly, a wicked grin spreading across his lips. For a moment I found myself scared of him and could feel my heart racing in my chest. I had seen that smile before and things never ended well when I did, but I soon realized that the smile wasn't some disease. It was utterly and completely his. I relaxed and slumped back into my bed, silently wishing he would go away and leave me to my misery.

"Don't worry, you have nothing to be ashamed about!" he said lightly, and instantly my embarrassment returned. He couldn't mean that he thought I looked….nice, could he? He reached down to my floor, picking up handfuls of the clothes I had left strewn about and finding something he liked, threw the bundle at me. I stared down at his fashion choice and was completely shocked to find that the outfit he had picked out was, well it was rather adorable. It consisted of a pair of white-washed, ripped jeans, a hand-woven brown belt, and a black cut-off tee. Turning my back to him I quickly yanked on the clothes and jumped out of bed.

"Hurry up now," he began flippantly, "We need to get back to the lab and finish my experiment. You've already made me HOURS late and we simply can't waste anymore time. You see I've finally figured it out! I just had the wires connected wrong, but how was I supposed to know that the wire faded to green instead of staying red? I wasn't really and I finally got that figured out but then I had to use some strange computer program that I was completely unawares about how to use, and may I remind you that I wouldn't have had that setback if my assistant was where she was supposed to be, and that took sometime but now I really do think I've got it! I just need to quickly test it out on you to make sure that it actually works." He said this in a matter of seconds, so completely fast that my mind tuned it out as gibberish.

"Slow down Myrnin! First of all I couldn't understand half of that, second you are sooooo not testing out anything on me, and C, no wait, thirdly, I can't come back to the lab with you, not today. In fact why don't you give the week off, or the whole month for that matter!" I responded. I doubted I could fix things between me and Shane in just a week and there was no way I was going around Myrnin, or any vamp really, until we sorted things out. Or, I painfully thought, end them.

"What do you mean you aren't coming to the lab today?" Myrnin asked, "May I remind you that I am your boss and you will do as I say. Your opinion matters little to me."

"No. Please Myrnin, not today," I begged.

"And why not?" he asked, concern spreading to his features as if were just realizing how hurt and miserable I looked, "What's wrong, little Claire?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, letting my head hang down, "Nothing that would concern you anyway." Myrnin moved quickly, and before I could stop him he swiftly picked me up and pulled me into his lap, lifting up my chin and forcing my eyes to meet his.

"Claire, anything that hurts you concerns me. Understand that. You are the most important thing to me. I care about you as much as someone like me can. Now, tell me what happened." Myrnin said it softly but with enough force so that I knew that he meant every word he said. I let my eyes drift down to the bedspread, staring at the swirling patterns encompassed there.

"I got in a fight with Shane. It was bad Myr, really, really bad. I said something I really shouldn't have and I don't think he's ever going to forget it," I said and was not surprised to hear my voice crack on the last words. I looked back into Myrnin's eyes begging him to understand that this time it was different from all the other fights, this time was the worst. Myrnin looked at me with a sudden intensity and held my shoulders tightly in his hands.

"Listen to me and listen well. That boy is in love with you, more then I have ever seen someone be in love. I have seen thousands of romances throughout my long life and I have never seen someone feel so strongly for someone else, ever. You will just have to trust me when I say that I know that he will forgive you. Give it time and it will work out. I promise.

"But I also promise that if he ever hurts you in any way, may it be physically or mentally, I will end him. Got it?" Myrnin said with such compassion and truth in his eyes that I almost forgot that it was him. He released me from his grasp and I pathetically nodded my head, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep. He pulled me back into his arms and gave me a brief hug. Usually I would be shocked by this behavior but I was currently too tired to care.

"Don't worry little one, give him some space and let time heal your wounds. It will all be fine," he said reassuringly, "And if you let me I'd like to take you out to do something fun tonight, help you get your mind off things."

"And what exactly would that be?" I asked suspiciously, slightly raising by eyebrows, a billion thoughts racing through me head and not of them good.

"Now, now Claire, I'm much too young and innocent for that kind of thought," he said seductively, a faint quirk of a smile spreading across his lips.

"Sure you are Myrnin, sure you are," I said rolling my eyes, already in a much better mood. I guess he just had that kind of effect on me.

"Come, come child, we must be quick if we are to make it to our destination before it becomes midnight," he said excitedly, eyes burning with a hidden secret and excitement. He reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the portal, already flipping through different channels at a breakneck speed.

"Myrnin my shoes!" I called out.

"No time for them, besides I don't like shoes," he responded.

**sorry its not long i will post more soon xxxxxxxxx**


	2. Chapter 2

sunlight warmed my face, streaming in from the window opposite my bed. I sighed and buried myself deeper into the warm mass of blankets, safe and secure. In that brief moment as I woke up I was utterly peaceful, I had forgotten where I was, forgotten who I was and the only thing that mattered was that I was safe. But I wasn't. I couldn't be, no truly ever safe, not here. I frowned, unhappy that my own thoughts had ruined my parting contentedness. I let out another sigh and rolled over, searching with my hand for the beautiful boy who was my lover. My heart pounding, I realized I couldn't find him and shot up in bed looking to see where he was. No one was there. Silly me I thought to myself, of course he's not here, not after the things I said to him last night. I shut my eyes and dropped back onto the bed willing the images to stop racing across my eyes.

I heard the front door open and lifted my head off the couch in time to see Shane walk through the door, carrying a take-out bag and smelling of barbeque. I smiled at him and waved.

"Dinner?" I called out questioningly.

"Not for you sleepy head," he said teasingly, pulling the box away from my outstretched fingers.I rocked back on my heels, crossing my arms and glaring at him, my lips pulled back into a pout.

"Don't be angry with me, a man's gotta eat!" he said, a smirk starting to spread across his face. I changed my expression into my best puppy-dog face, staring up at him expectantly, willing him to hand over the box.

"Not fair Claire, you know I just can't resist that face!" he said, his expression deepening. I blinked once and tilted my head to the side and said in my most innocent voice, "What face?" He leaned forward to kiss me, dropping the box onto the table, the food forgotten. He kissed me lightly at first, but I quickly deepened turning into something more. I pulled him back towards the living room and pushed him onto the couch, settling myself in his lap without ever breaking the kiss. Eventually we pulled apart for air keeping our noses toughing, staring into each other's eyes. This must be love I thought, this must be it because I have never been happier in my entire life.

"I love you," I whispered to him.

"I love you too," he whispered back, reaching up with his hands to pull my face back to his.

"Whoa there guys, let's keep it PG, after all we do have a minor in the house," said Eve jokingly. I jumped up off the couch, my face reddening in embarrassment. Shane stayed sitting, eyes sparkling and lips pulled back into an adorable smile.

"Your just jealous cuz Mikey's not home," he responded. Eve rolled her eyes, flipped him the finger and walked into the kitchen.

"You know what, I think that it's you who is missing Michael. Don't worry I won't tell anyone about your bro-mance!" she called out laughing.

"Yeah like I'd ever like some bloodsucker like that," he muttered.

"Hey," I said glaring at him, "Michael's your friend. I thought you were past this."

"Don't worry," he said pulling me back into his lap, "It's nothing against Michael, just the thought of liking a vamp in general." I sighed not convinced.

"Honestly, I'm over it," he said leaning in to finish where we left off. Just as his lips once again met mine my phone went off with an annoying shrill.

"Ignore it," he grumbled and kept on kissing me. I let him for a moment longer and then twisted myself out of his grasp and grabbed my phone off the table. I flipped it open and checked the caller-ID….Myrnin.

"Let me guess, it's your stupid vampire boss, isn't it?" Shane said, the anger evident in his voice. I shot him a look and answered.

"Hello?"

"Claire, you can't have tomorrow off. I would say I'm sorry but I'm not. Be here at 6 o'clock sharp no exceptions and if you're late I'll eat you," Myrnin's voice answered sharply from the other side.

"But….." I started to say but stopped when I heard him click off on the other end.

"Ahhh, stupid Myrnin, I hate you," I said dropping back onto the couch and began massaging my temples with my fingers.

"What now?" asked Shane.

"Myrnin's making me go into work tomorrow," I said.

"But tomorrow is my day off and I thought we were going to go see a movie together."

"I'm sorry Shane but I can't, we'll just have to go next week," I said to him, averting my eyes.

"No," he said, standing up, "We are going to the movies. You'll just have to call him back and tell him that you can't work. Or better yet just don't go to the lab tomorrow."

"Shane, come on now, you know I can't do that! He'd kill me, or Amelie would. I can't just blow off my job!"

"Yes you can!" he stated back.

"No Shane I can't and you shouldn't expect me to!" I yelled at him.

"You know what, I'm starting to think that maybe there is another reason why you keep doing everything that crazy bloodsucker commands."

I froze, anger turning everything into sharp focus, "Just what are you implying, Shane."

"I'm not implying anything, I'm flat out stating that I think you're cheating on me with him," Shane said, eyes flashing with hurt and rage.

"I cannot believe you just said that to me! Out of all the ridiculous things-!"

"It's not ridiculous! I've seen the way he looks at you! Don't tell me you don't see it too! At first I wasn't worried because you always acted like he wasn't important but lately you started looking back at him," he stopped, turning away from me. I knew I should feel bad but I was just too angry and I couldn't seem to be able to lock the anger away.

"So you're saying that if I look at my boss then I must be cheating on you with him. Really Shane, do you know how stupid that sounds, do you even hear yourself?" I shot back questioningly.

"It's the way you stare into his eyes…" he said but stopped, sounding hurt and confused. I immediately felt bad for implying that he was stupid. He's just hurt I thought, he's only acting like this because he loves me.

"I can't believe you could ever look some disgusting…thing like that in the eyes," he muttered. That's when I snapped. I had never felt so enraged in my entire life. How could he have so much hate and prejudice in his heart, especially with how wrong he had been proven in recent events? In that one second I hated him, just for a fraction of a second I hated what he was and how he acted. It was really the smallest possible fraction but that's all it took, I wanted to hit him where it hurt and I knew just how to do it.

"Well he does have pretty eyes. Maybe I just wanted to look at something beautiful after having to look at you all day," I stated, my voice flat and eyes burning.

His expression was pure pain, pure innocent, unneeded, unnecessary pain.

My stomach twisted and I wanted to take it back, take it all back and wrap myself back into his arms and tell him just how much I loved and needed him. But I knew I never could and it felt terrible, like someone was repeatedly stabbing me in the stomach over and over again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it, I really didn't" I whispered, searching his eyes for any sign that he might forgive me. There was none, his faced had twisted into the most unnerving mask of hate that was directed entirely at me, the anger turning his normally soft features cold and sharp. I knew it wasn't the content of the insult that hurt him the most but the fact that I had said that Myrnin, a vampire, a vampire who had tried to kill me on numerous occasions was better than him.

"Get out of my sight," he stated, but his voice was wrong, it wasn't him, it was anger.

"Shane…" I said helplessly, begging him with my eyes to forgive me.

"No," he said bluntly, "Get out of my sight."

No longer able to hold back the tears, I burst out crying and pushed past a very shocked Eve and ran up the stairs and into my room, slamming and locking the door behind me. I sank to the floor in a heap, my head a whirl of emotions and cried until the world had no more meaning.

I awoke sometime later to Eve knocking on my door asking me if I was alright and if she could come in. I chose to ignore her and simply stripped down to my underwear and climbed into my empty bed. I tried to escape the pain and fall into the peaceful numbness of sleep but every time I closed my eyes images of Shane's pained face came into my mind, staring back at me. I sobbed harder and curled myself into the tightest ball I possibly could, trying to make myself so microscopic that I would disappear. I stayed that way, sobbing and shaking, for I don't know how long until exhaustion overtook my fear and gently pulled me into the oblivion.

Depressed, I rolled onto my other side so that I was facing the wall and tried to make my mind once again blank so that I might be able to slip back into the realm of oblivion. I sighed again because I knew that was pointless. I would never be able to forget, not for a single second. I turned and looked at the clock. It read 10:27. Late, and just a little late, 4 and half hours late. Myrnin really was going to kill me this time. Oh well, if I'm already that drastically late I really don't need to go at all. Guess I wasn't going to work after all, how ironic.

I rolled my eyes and snuggled back into my bed, just because I can't sleep doesn't mean I can't stay in bed all day. Besides, I'm far too overdue for a mental health day. I stared at the door willing Shane to walk through it and tell me he everything was going to be alright, that he forgave me and all was well. But I knew the truth, that was never going to happen. I ruined the best thing in my life and it was no one else's fault but my own.

"Great job Claire," I said to myself, "You really know how to hurt people don't you?"

woke up to a buzzing sound vibrating through my ears. I groaned and rolled over, reaching to hit my alarm. I hit the button, but the buzzing didn't stop. Surprised I sat up and hit it again before I realized that the buzzing wasn't coming from any electronic.

A portal.

I had just enough time to process that thought before Myrnin came striding into my room wearing tight black skinny jeans and a pair of red trainers under his signature old-fashioned, Victorian, black coat. He was, of course, topless under this coat and I unwillingly found myself starting at his well defined stomach.

"You're late," he said in a flat voice, "I told you not to be late." I flicked my eyes up to meet his soulless brown ones and was surprised to see that he actually looked offended.

"Uhhh…I…was, well I was…umm," I stuttered.

"Yes, yes, you were supposed to have the day off. Blah, blah, blah. I'm sure you'll inform me of your opinion whether I like it or not. Buuuut," his voice took on a sickly sweet edge and his eyes slid shamelessly to my chest, "Perhaps you should get dressed first."

With a gasp I yanked the sheets up to cover my chest realizing that I too was topless. I felt my face heat up and quickly cast my eyes to the floor my embarrassment rendering me speechless. He let out a rich laugh.

"My, oh my, I think my little bird is self conscious," he said darkly, a wicked grin spreading across his lips. For a moment I found myself scared of him and could feel my heart racing in my chest. I had seen that smile before and things never ended well when I did, but I soon realized that the smile wasn't some disease. It was utterly and completely his. I relaxed and slumped back into my bed, silently wishing he would go away and leave me to my misery.

"Don't worry, you have nothing to be ashamed about!" he said lightly, and instantly my embarrassment returned. He couldn't mean that he thought I looked….nice, could he? He reached down to my floor, picking up handfuls of the clothes I had left strewn about and finding something he liked, threw the bundle at me. I stared down at his fashion choice and was completely shocked to find that the outfit he had picked out was, well it was rather adorable. It consisted of a pair of white-washed, ripped jeans, a hand-woven brown belt, and a black cut-off tee. Turning my back to him I quickly yanked on the clothes and jumped out of bed.

"Hurry up now," he began flippantly, "We need to get back to the lab and finish my experiment. You've already made me HOURS late and we simply can't waste anymore time. You see I've finally figured it out! I just had the wires connected wrong, but how was I supposed to know that the wire faded to green instead of staying red? I wasn't really and I finally got that figured out but then I had to use some strange computer program that I was completely unawares about how to use, and may I remind you that I wouldn't have had that setback if my assistant was where she was supposed to be, and that took sometime but now I really do think I've got it! I just need to quickly test it out on you to make sure that it actually works." He said this in a matter of seconds, so completely fast that my mind tuned it out as gibberish.

"Slow down Myrnin! First of all I couldn't understand half of that, second you are sooooo not testing out anything on me, and C, no wait, thirdly, I can't come back to the lab with you, not today. In fact why don't you give the week off, or the whole month for that matter!" I responded. I doubted I could fix things between me and Shane in just a week and there was no way I was going around Myrnin, or any vamp really, until we sorted things out. Or, I painfully thought, end them.

"What do you mean you aren't coming to the lab today?" Myrnin asked, "May I remind you that I am your boss and you will do as I say. Your opinion matters little to me."

"No. Please Myrnin, not today," I begged.

"And why not?" he asked, concern spreading to his features as if were just realizing how hurt and miserable I looked, "What's wrong, little Claire?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, letting my head hang down, "Nothing that would concern you anyway." Myrnin moved quickly, and before I could stop him he swiftly picked me up and pulled me into his lap, lifting up my chin and forcing my eyes to meet his.

"Claire, anything that hurts you concerns me. Understand that. You are the most important thing to me. I care about you as much as someone like me can. Now, tell me what happened." Myrnin said it softly but with enough force so that I knew that he meant every word he said. I let my eyes drift down to the bedspread, staring at the swirling patterns encompassed there.

"I got in a fight with Shane. It was bad Myr, really, really bad. I said something I really shouldn't have and I don't think he's ever going to forget it," I said and was not surprised to hear my voice crack on the last words. I looked back into Myrnin's eyes begging him to understand that this time it was different from all the other fights, this time was the worst. Myrnin looked at me with a sudden intensity and held my shoulders tightly in his hands.

"Listen to me and listen well. That boy is in love with you, more then I have ever seen someone be in love. I have seen thousands of romances throughout my long life and I have never seen someone feel so strongly for someone else, ever. You will just have to trust me when I say that I know that he will forgive you. Give it time and it will work out. I promise.

"But I also promise that if he ever hurts you in any way, may it be physically or mentally, I will end him. Got it?" Myrnin said with such compassion and truth in his eyes that I almost forgot that it was him. He released me from his grasp and I pathetically nodded my head, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep. He pulled me back into his arms and gave me a brief hug. Usually I would be shocked by this behavior but I was currently too tired to care.

"Don't worry little one, give him some space and let time heal your wounds. It will all be fine," he said reassuringly, "And if you let me I'd like to take you out to do something fun tonight, help you get your mind off things."

"And what exactly would that be?" I asked suspiciously, slightly raising by eyebrows, a billion thoughts racing through me head and not of them good.

"Now, now Claire, I'm much too young and innocent for that kind of thought," he said seductively, a faint quirk of a smile spreading across his lips.

"Sure you are Myrnin, sure you are," I said rolling my eyes, already in a much better mood. I guess he just had that kind of effect on me.

"Come, come child, we must be quick if we are to make it to our destination before it becomes midnight," he said excitedly, eyes burning with a hidden secret and excitement. He reached down and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the portal, already flipping through different channels at a breakneck speed.

"Myrnin my shoes!" I called out.

"No time for them, besides I don't like shoes," he responded.


	3. Chapter 3

"Here we go again," I mumbled to myself and obediently followed my companion into the blackness of the portal.

I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time and let the pain and sadness sink into me fully until I could feel nothing but the dense pressure of thought.

"Myrnin where are we?" I said, gazing around in confusion.

"Underground," he said in a distant voice. He was already busy pushing buttons and flipping switches on a large board that hung on the wall.

"Yeah, I figured that much," I said with a sigh.

"Then why did you ask?" he said without looking at me. I could now faintly hear a whirring noise and saw a large section of the wall move away. Behind the wall was a large cavern with a rounded, white marble ceiling that looked at least 3 stories away. The floor was a dark paneled wood and several desks were set amongst the room at equal intervals. Glowing green lamps were lit on the desks and I saw that some were piled high with papers and others held modern looking computers. Along the walls all the way up to the ceiling were shelves upon shelves of…

"Books" I stated. I slowly walked over to the closest shelf and lightly dragged my fingertips across the leather bound spines. The books made the room I decided. The room, though grand in size, was rather simple, but the books, oh the books. They came in every color, size and shape. There was red ones and blue ones, ones with gold writing on the side, ones that looked so old that I thought they might crumble from a single touch. There were ones that appeared to be half a foot wide and even some encrusted with jewels. I frantically began scanning the titles and soon found they were as different as the covers themselves. The Secret Life of a Bumblebee, one read, The Complete Pocket Guide to Properly Duel Wielding, read another, and even another read, Racial Phylogeny In the Indigenous Tribes of the Netherlands. They seemed to be shoved rather neatly into their little shelves although I could not distinguish any order that they might have been placed in.

I carefully looked around the entire room, trying to estimate the amount of books there was. I was shocked to realize that there was simply too many for even my enhanced brain to count. There could have been a hundred thousand or two or even three, at the very least there was ten thousand. I craned my neck back and stared at the ceiling and slowly turned in a circle, taking in the vast number and starting to find an appreciation for the amount of knowledge that was in this room. I felt a sudden pang of sadness as I realized that even if a spent every single second of my life in here reading I would never even get through half.

"If you were a vampire you could."

The single thought shot into my brain before I could stop it. Claire, I told myself, you need to get a grip; you under no circumstances would ever want to be a vampire. Think Shane. How would he feel if he knew you thought that? Hmmm? He would hate you.

"He already does."

"Shut up!" I yelled at myself, flinging my hands up over my mouth in shock as I realized I said that out loud.

"I'm afraid I didn't say anything, dear Claire." Myrnin said from behind me. I jumped at the sound of his voice and turned around, not expecting him to be quite that close. My heart racing, I looked into his eyes, afraid of seeing the monster there but instead for the second time today found only concern.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…frighten you," he said slowly and quickly backed up about two steps, "But who were you talking to?"

"Oh, I was um…" I stuttered out, my face reddening, obviously embarrassed, "I was talking to myself."

"Yourself?" he said questioningly, his eyes taking on a sharp look and focusing rather narrowly on me, "Take care not to lose you in yourself. It may seem absurd but I would like to believe that I of all people would know just how dangerous a seemingly harmless thing like that can become."

"Of course," I said quickly, my eyes burning holes into the ground. I felt a slight breeze and all of a sudden I was no longer looking at the ground but at Myrnin's shoes. His fingertips lightly pressed underneath my chin and he gently but firmly pushed my head up until I was looking into his eyes.

"Are you truly alright, little Claire? I would not have brought you here if I knew it would cause such meticulously hidden pain to surface." His eyes held such total and complete sorrow and care in them that I found that I could no longer bear his gaze upon me.

"No, no Myrnin, don't worry. I'm absolutely and completely fine." I looked at him and saw disbelief cross his face. Before he could voice his concerns I quickly added, "Honestly."

"No, Claire I don't believe you are, but it is not my place to pry," he said, still studying my face. I quickly looked away and began to walk towards one of the desks, not liking the amount of worry and concern I saw in his face.

"Well…" I said, eager to change the subject, when a thought occurred to me, "What exactly is this place?" In my nostalgia of last night's fight with Shane and the unavoidable exhaustion and depression that came with it, I had completely forgotten where we were, wherever that may be.

"Well, it's a collection of all of the books that any vampire in Morganville has ever owned, but you can simply call it what it is, a library. I'm sure you could not find any way that the books were categorized and that is because they are categorized by owner. Every vampire in Morganville has at least one shelf, except for me that is and I'm sure you know exactly where my books are, perhaps even better than I do," he said with an impish grin. "Since you seemed to take such an interest in constantly reorganizing my books I thought you may find this…attractive."

"It's beautiful Myr, perhaps the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Thank you," I said turning to look at him, a smile unwillingly spreading across my face. "Thank you," I repeated with tears in my eyes because it was simply that. Beautiful.

The beauty went deeper then the simple prettiness of the rainbow of book bindings and my tears came from more than awe at appearances. The beauty of this place came from the vast and possibly endless amount of knowledge, of fact, of history and of value that all these books held and the tears came from the indisguisable fact that Myrnin not only truly and deeply cared about me, but that he truly and deeply understood me. He knew that I needed to forget everything that had happened but at the same time I needed to be able to cry and let the building heartache out. Being here in such a condensed place of knowledge brought about an indescribable feeling of contentedness and overwhelming sorrow at precisely the same the time. This personal knowledge influenced my thought process and caused me to think about my own emotions in a detached state that, while keeping my humanity, saved me from being consumed by them. It was simply brilliant. It was something only Myrnin could think of, something that only he would understand. I stared deeply into his eyes, trying my best to find his reason in the inky blackness but only found myself staring back. I found that this annoyed me to a great end, that he could read into me so acutely and profoundly and I could not even find a single reason behind his obvious and sudden attachment to me. I considered grilling him about it, but realized that he was hiding something, not from me, but from himself, something immense. Something quite considerable indeed if he couldn't even let himself face it. My mind began racing through every emotion that I could think of, trying to pin the exact one that he currently was feeling as he stared back at me and I could find only one, an impossible one.

"You're very welcome," he finally said breaking the silence, his face becoming strained. "You can't come here without an escort of course but I sure Amelie wouldn't mind if you looked through here, as long as you put everything back as you found it and didn't take anything out of this room, that is."

"Of course, I understand that this is a great privilege that very few, if any are allowed and I would not mistreat any leniency I have been given," I said cautiously, still searching his face for any signs that he was going to do something unexpected.

"If I may Claire, I'd like to show you some books that I'm sure would peak your interest, you being a teenage girl that is," he said freely, back to his usual self.

"You know, I sometimes wonder if you forget that," I said tentatively.

"Forget what?" he called down, as he was climbing up the shelves and rapidly thumbing through books.

"That I'm a teenage girl." He paused, mid book, and effortlessly dropped down to my level. I found him once again staring into my eyes.

"Never," he said hauntingly and then he was off, hastily shoving a book into my hands and flitting up amongst the shelves, once again going through them at an alarming rate. I looked at the book in my hands. It was a large book; at the very least a thousand pages, with a green cover and large unfamiliar symbols embossed on the top in a curving, gold script. Even though I searched on the front, back, side and first ten pages I could not find anything that might be considered a title. Under closer examination I realized that the symbols were not only symbols but characters of an unfamiliar language.

"Myrnin," I called up, "What am I supposed to do with this? I can't read it, it's not in English." My question was answered with silence. Annoyed, I look around the room, searching for him but only seeing the rows upon rows of books. I frantically spun in circle, fear beginning to creep into me, desperately searching for any sign of him. I stopped my heart racing, deciding I was going to the find the door and just get out of there when I felt two icy, cold hand s wrap around me, one around my throat and another around my waist, dragging me backwards. I let out a scream and that's when the lights went out.

he hands yanked me backwards pulling me into the inky blackness. They picked me up, to a point where even though my feet were still touching the ground I wasn't putting any weight on them. It was like floating. The intriguing sensation of this sent my brain into overdrive and almost began to calm me until the hands threw me backwards into the shelves.

I landed against them with a grunt and a moan, my head smacking against a shelf and the corner of a book being stabbed into the small of my back and after a brief moment of confusion, quickly jumped to my feet, trying to ignore the growing pain in my head. I stuck my hands out, trying to feel my way through the never ending illusion of night and slowly began to move in what I thought was the direction of the door. Stumbling blindly, I tripped over what must have been a falling book and fell onto my knees, bruising them. I let out a hiss of pain and frustration and scrambled to pull myself back up, determined to find a way out.

With a buzz the lights flicked back on and I found myself blinded in a different way as my pupils contracted to the smallest possible fraction in order to stop too much light from entering my eyes. Shielding my burning eyes with my forearm, I frantically looked for the door. As nothing became an apparent way out I began to panic.

No Claire, I told myself, think logically. There must be a door somewhere but until you find it you must fight. Stakes Claire, you need stakes. Look in your backpack.

I began moving to the first desk that I saw as I walked in, hoping that that was where I had left it. After a moments searching I realized that my backpack wasn't there. Where the hell was it?

At home I realized, my hysteria rising. So that was it then, nowhere to run and nothing to fight with.

Wait, my necklace is silver, I thought, but that would only work as a diversion and a diversion implies you have a plan, which you don't. You need to reason with him.

Yes because trying to reason with your insane, hungry and not to mention lethal, vampire boss is going to go oh so well.

It's all you've got Claire. You've got to try. Remember, don't show fear, or you're dead.

"Myrnin," I called out tentatively while slowly turning around in a circle, hoping to catch some glimpse of him, "Where are you Myrnin? This isn't funny."

"No one is laughing sweet, innocent, foolish, little Claire," he whispered throatily, his voice coming from directly behind me. I pulled in a sharp intake of breath and felt my heart literally skip a beat in my fear. As I went to spin around to face him, those cold, strong hands gripped my arms, preventing me from moving. I let out a little whimper, cursing myself as I did for showing a sign of fear, not that he couldn't already hear my fluttering heartbeat. My brain began to black out from the terror and I could no longer think straight. It was all happening so fast.

"Now, now little Claire, you know better than to move. If you be a good little girl now and stay still for me, I'll promise to make this as painless as possible," he said darkly into my ear while one of his hands went up to push my hair away from my neck and gently pull my head sideways while the other slid down to my hips and around to just under my belly-button. He pulled me backwards into him, pressing me against him with such a sudden force that I let out another little whimper.

"Unless of course you like the pain," he growled while his lips pressed into the back of my neck. I could feel him smirking there, against me, and I tried my best not to move or to make a single sound. He lightly kissed me there for a moment or two before he stopped and sighed.

"You're not begging," he stated, "Why aren't you begging? They always beg!" Suddenly he was angry and he shoved me forwards. I caught myself on the edge of a desk, my head snapping forwards and without wasting a second darted sideways towards the opposite end of the room, my resolve gone and only one emotion left, run.

He, with his unfair advantage, easily caught up to me within a single bound, grabbing my arm and yanking me backwards with a painful burst and once again shoving me against the shelves. Only this time he was there in front of me, pressing up against me and forcing me against the shelves with absolutely no space in-between us. He glared down at me, an evil, predatory look in his eyes, mixed in with something else I couldn't quite identify and slowly slid his hands down me and upon finding my wrists, encircled them with his and pulled them up, over my head, trapping me, and leaving me in a very vulnerable position. I stared back into his eyes with what I hoped was an equally fierce expression, commanding myself to stay strong in my resolve.

"You stupid, little, child, I told you not to run or it was going to be painful. As I believe you silly humans would say, 'No more mister nice guy'. He paused for a moment and tilted his head slightly as if he were trying to remember something forgotten.

"Not that I won't enjoy it more this way," he said seductively, an evil smirk slowly spreading across his prefect lips and a compelling look glinting across his eyes. He shifted his position slightly so that a very specific part of him was suddenly pressing quite forcefully against a very specific part of me. OH MY GOD, my mind screamed at me and then much to my dismay a little moan forced its way through me and escaped out my slightly parted lips.

"Then again I'm starting to think that you're going to like it more this way too." With that his fangs slid down with a audible snap, those glorious eyes turning deadly, and he smashed my hands together, over my head, so that his one hand was trapping them both and the other he twisted into my hair and roughly jerked my head sideways, exposing my pale neck. He bowed his head and buried his face in my warm neck, his fangs pressing dimples into my skin.

"Now beg," he whispered breathlessly, his voice taking on a needing tone, and I did.

"Please, please Myrnin! Don't do this! You don't want to!" I said, gasping for my breath, my heart racing, unwillingly saying the words that would doom me.

"Hmmmm… don't I? Well young, innocent Claire, I think you may find that I very much do," he declared indubitably, his voice lilting with a flirtatious edge that enthralled me and drew me in to him.

Stay strong Claire, my conscious echoed, Remember the Shane you must go home to.

"No you don't! You can't kill me Myrnin, you need me! I'm the only one you have left!" I screeched at him, realization and fear hitting me that giving in may lead to my own demise.

As soon as I said those words something changed within his eyes. The cloud of hunger and lust parted and pure, unwavering revulsion pulsed through his expression. At first I believed that it was directed at me, that by becoming his only friend I had taken away his snack and the monster inside of him hated me for it, but I was soon to see that my first impression was horribly mistaken. It was self-hatred, self-disgust. He hated himself for what he was about to do to me. He released me at once and pushed himself away from me, quickly casting his eyes downward but not fast enough that I didn't see the forming tears. He stumbled away from me and turned his back, covering his face with his hands, shoulders heaving from the pain.

"I'm sorry Claire, I'm so so so sorry! I…I…I lost myself, I gave into it. I'm so very sorry, I should've have fought harder against the hunger. Oh god Claire I'm so sorry!" he wailed like a wounded animal. I felt something inside of me twist in agony at seeing him like this, I was the only one who had any chance of consoling him and he was my friend so I knew that I had to forgive him, it's not like my own resolve didn't weaken once in awhile, he who had done so much for me already, truly deserved another chance.

"It's alright Myrnin, really it's alright. I know you didn't mean to, I understand how hard things can be. You're forgiven, it's all right," I murmured soothingly, and tentatively reached out to lightly touch his shoulder. He spun around at my touch, so fast that he became an ethereal blur. He looked at me with such remorse in his eyes, such sorrow, and grabbed my face between his hands.

"No Claire, it's not alright, it never was and it never will be. One day I'll hurt you, you know I will, I know I will. You need to leave, leave now, leave and never come back. You can't come back to the lab, ever. It's the only way to keep you safe. In fact you need to leave Morganville, you need to have all the surely unpleasant memories wiped clean from your mind so that you may be carefree and innocent once again. Don't worry about Amelie either, I'll deal with her! She has to let you go and even if she won't I'll find some way to sneak you out. Go, go now! You must!" he said, casting me away, but with such emotion and passion in his voice I almost wanted to burst.

I looked aside and saw part of the wall spin into the calming chaos of blackness and felt the familiar energy of a portal. I looked at it solemnly, then back to him. He was looking at me with an eagerness that surprised me. He really thought that this was only way that things could be, that I could never see him again. The simple idea of never coming back to the lab, never again flipping through those century old books, or feeding those awful flies to Bob, or spending hours cleaning the place, only to come back and see it all messed up again, of not seeing the colorful, bubbling chemicals in their variously shaped glass bottles, and the traps and dangers that had been strategically placed everywhere throughout the room left me thoroughly sickened. Going farther, I imagined not seeing him again, not seeing his mischievous, secret smile that he saved just for me, not seeing all those crazy outfits with the Mardi gras beads and the floppy hats and the vampire bunny slippers, not seeing that unruly mop of black curls or his way his smooth pale chest appeared beneath his unbuttoned shirts, of not seeing those endless eyes that held centuries of misery and hate, of love and sorrow, fear and anguish, joy and hunger, of hope and such immense knowledge, left me in such a terrible state of shock and utter panic that I felt as if someone had punched a giant whole through my heart, leaving me with only an endless agony that made tears spring from my eyes and spill down my face in glassy rivets. And that was just the thought of it. How much worse was the real pain going to be? Way worse.

I stared deeply into his eyes and prayed to whatever god there was that he would see just how much I needed him.

"I can't leave you Myrnin, not now, not ever. It's too late. I can no longer have a life that doesn't have you in it," as I began to speak and desperately scramble to try to express my unknown feelings surrounding him an epiphany hit me. Hit me like a meteorite hitting the sun. In that split second a total calm enveloped me and I began to be able to see things in their truth.

I loved him. I loved him!

I absolutely, undoubtedly loved him. Loved him with everything I had, and everything I would have. I no longer feared my true feelings and gazing into those incandescent, brown eyes, I realized that he loved me too.

Words no longer were needed as he witnessed the truth blaze into my eyes. He ran at me in a blindingly fast speed, and I was never afraid, not even for the most inconsequential fraction of a second, not even as he once again shoved me against the wall, not even as a mixture of love and lust eclipsed his eyes, and certainly not when he finally reached down caressing my face with an impossible tenderness, pulled me against him and kissed me as if I was the only girl in the world.

It started off slowly at first, a simple caress of skin on skin, but soon built in intensity, the quiet touch turning into a smoldering scream. His lips moved feverishly against mine, pressing with a, in some way expected, force.

His hands gripped tightly around my waist, sliding up and down, back and forth, pulling me into him. My own hands slid up over his exposed chest, running across his chest and up, twisting into his silky black curls. My lips crushed against his with even more vigor, a gasp worming its way up through my throat, as his right hand crept up my stomach, moving up to my breast, cupping it for a moment and then tugging at the thin fabric, exposing my bra. His lips moved across my cheek and swept downward, trailing kisses down to my throat, as he stopped at the spot where my pulse was the strongest. I could feel his tongue tracing the slight raise of the two silvery scars that were placed there, living proof that I was his. With a snap, his fangs carefully slid down, pressing lightly into my skin. They were cold and razor sharp and the idea of them in me sent little shivers down my spine. To his surprise and my own, I cupped the back of his head, driving him to bite.

"Claire…" he moaned, "You have to stop me, you don't want me to do this."

"Oh but Myrnin," I whispered sweetly, mocking him by copying his words from before, "I think I do."

"Say it," he muttered, barely audible. Without any doubts and without wasting a single second I answered,

"Bite me." And he did. The fangs slipped into my skin, raising a moan from deep within me, partially from pain, partially from excitement and arousal. Blood began to flow from the wound and he lapped it up, sliding his tongue across the cut to incite the blood flow. He gulped mouthful after mouthful, like a mad man, driven insane by thirst, which I suppose he was. I leaned heavily into his capable arms and let him drink, my hands roaming over his chest and tracing the outline of his smooth, defined muscles.

Soon, way too soon, my head began to feel heavy and I felt slightly dizzy, and I reluctantly murmured,

"Myrnin."After a second more he pulled his fangs out, licking up the last traces of blood on my skin and leaving a feather light kiss over the newly opened marks. He moved back slightly, just enough to be able to stare into my eyes. In them I saw swirls of lust moving like starlight through the blackness of his love. I stared back into his wild face, carefully taking in his open, blood covered mouth, showing the glinting white fangs, not feeling any of the fear that a normal human would experience. No, I only felt the want, the need, the desire, the love. I leaned forward, hands ghosting up to the back of his head, re-entangling themselves in his perfect hair, and yanked his head towards mine and kissed him, fangs and all. The kiss tasted of my own blood and I somehow found that this made him even more desirable. His hands slid down from my neck, around my arms, and rested heavily on my hips. They slowly slid around to my back and yanked me into him, pressing us so closely together that not even a single atom could get in-between. It wasn't nearly close enough.

He kept on kissing me like it was the end of the world, his tongue slipping into my mouth and exploring every curve while mine did the same to his. I bit his lip lightly, pulling it back.

Biting a vampire? My, my Claire you have gone insane, I thought.

He growled in response, his possessive side taking over and moved his lips over to my ear biting tenderly.

"Your mine now Claire, mine forever," he whispered, the need turning his voice dark. I whimpered in pleasure at the thought of this.

"Take me then," I whispered back, my back arching and I moved my hips into him so I could feel his desire more clearly. He pulled back for a moment and gazed into my eyes, smiling that seductive smile that was all his. I stared back and in seeing the lust haze over those lightless wells that had caused lifetimes of mischief, I knew that he most certainly would.

If he had acted with polite hesitation before, there was none now. His lips caught back on my roughly jamming his mouth against mine and plunging his tongue in without pause. They moved to the side of my lips, trailing onto my chin, and moving against my throat with such ferocity that it sent shivers down my spine, and kept gliding downwards until they came to rest upon the tops of my breasts. My hands fisted tightly in his hair and I pulled his face against me as he sucked and nibbled there. I moaned at this, my entire body on high alert, so that every touch sent a course of electricity through me, exciting me more. He, being the most impatient person I had ever, met was not going to be bother by simple fabric and so he reached up and ripped open my shirt in one smooth motion, tearing to shreds and exposing me entirely to him.

He seemed proud of his work and happy with the prize as he moved in licking and sucking my hardened nipples, his nimble fingers traveling first to squeeze my breast and then just into the waistline of my jeans, nearly sending me over the edge. My head snapped back in pleasure, smacking into the bookcase behind me with a sharp crack, sending signals of pain through me that only furthered my ecstasy. He stood back up to meet my lips in a passionate embrace and once again his hands glided down to my back, this time going further as to cup my ass for a moment and then continuing on to grip my thighs.

With a slight shriek from me his hands pulled me up off the ground and he wrapped my legs around his waist, allowing me to distinctly feel his great arousal. I smiled at this because frankly, he felt huge. He elegantly walked over to the closest desk, throwing me onto it and slowly crawling on top of me, his eyes carefully watching my every reaction the entire time. I looked into his eyes, and raised my eyebrows in an ark, my own eyes mocking, saying with them,

Well what are you waiting for?

othing, his grin said back. He leaned down and kissed me passionately on the mouth, slowly working his tongue in and around my mouth. I moaned with my own want and decided that things weren't moving fast enough. In one deft motion that surprised both me and him, I twisted in his grasp, pushing him off me for one brief second and then turning around so that I now found myself sitting on top of him. Seeing the slightly bewildered look on his face, I laughed and kissed him with all my might.

As I kissed him something happened. I didn't hear bells ring, I didn't see fireworks, or feel sparks, or any other clichéd ideas, I just simply realized how real this was, how simply perfect this was and it took my breath away. As I kissed him, my minded completely blanked out, leaving me in a daze and wiping out every single thing I was feeling and replacing it all with him, just him.

I rolled away, while keeping his mouth against mine, so that he was once again on top of me. He trailed kisses all the way down my body, stopping at my stomach. His eyes flashed up to meet mine for a brief second and he grinned before moving down to the waistband of my jeans. To my great enjoyment he undid both the button and the zipper entirely with his mouth. His hands half yanked, half ripped my jeans off me and tossed them into some dark corner, leaving me in nothing but my black and white striped underwear.

For the first time we both realized just how far this was going to go and we also realized that this was probably not the most appropriate of places, and with a light giggle from me, Myrnin picked me up in his arms, opened a portal and carried me into the lab. He sat me lightly down on a nearby bench and continued to kiss me lustfully. I pulled away and shook my head, and then proceeded to stride into the bedroom, towing him along behind me.

I closed the door behind us and not bothering to turn on the lights, I yanked him towards me, meeting his lips in fiery kiss. He quickly wiggled his way out of his own jeans and the picked me up and literally threw me onto the bed, landing himself on top of me.

There the last remaining scraps of clothing were twisted away and in the soft glow of a timeless place, we became one.

"Myrnin-," I started, worry clouding my tone.

"No child, it is already morning. Sleep now, sleep and let dreams give you answers," he whispered softly in my ear.

"But Myr, I can't!" I whispered fiercely back, my mind starting to cloud over in a foggy haze from my exhaustion. I fought to stay awake, literally thrashing about in my struggle. I knew I was losing.

"Be still love, be still," he said, his voice fading into the background; I fought harder to force out the words I needed to say.

"I love you," I whispered faintly, in a barely audible tone. My consciousness was almost gone but I still felt the impossibly tender kiss that he placed on my forehead and still heard him whisper back,

"I love you too, little one. Now and forever." With that I fell into a deep and seemingly endless sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

X-X

I awoke in an unfamiliar bedroom next to a beautiful man.

Myrnin.

Content with things I smiled at him and found he was already awake, staring at me sorrowfully and slowly tracing patterns on my skin.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Claire," he said his finger pausing and he quickly cast his eyes downward, ashamed.

"What are you… sorry about?" I asked, caution filling my voice and showing my doubts. Is he regretting this? I thought to myself.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you little one," he whispered keeping his eyes downcast. The pain was so obvious and deep in him that I immediately felt a growing sadness in me and reached over to touch him

Pain. I froze mid-movement, my whole arm cramping up in a sizzling burn. It felt as if someone had burned my skin and torn all my muscles to shreds, it was a pain I knew all too well from the time when I had fallen out of a tree as a child, the pain of a bruise.

I slowly moved my still tingling arm back into the position it had been in and cautiously moved my other arm over, massaging small circles in the skin, gritting my teeth and being careful not to let the pain take over my features. I looked myself over and was no longer surprised to find blue and purple bruises blooming across my skin. And they were in the shape of handprints. That's what Myrnin had meant about hurting me. I turned my head afraid to see his reaction and was regarded with mournful eyes that were miles deep and held acres upon acres of heart-wrenching pain and sorrow.

I'm so sorry, they whispered to me, I'm so, so, so sorry.

"Myrnin," I started, but he averted his eyes and refused to look at me, "Myrnin look at me." He silently shook his head and I saw I tear slide down off the end of his face. I slowly and with great effort to mask my soreness, held his face between my fingers and leaned in closely, forcing him to stare back into my gaze. I saw only remorse in him, much, much, too much remorse for a few bruises. This was going too far. I was torturing him.

"Do you love me?" I asked boldly, giving him reason to think I had doubts about us, which at that moment I didn't.

"Claire-" he started but I cut him off.

"Do you love me? Just answer the question Myrnin." I said, actual doubt beginning to creep slyly into my voice at his hesitation.

"When I look at you I feel a sort of calmness come over me, the constant bloodlust raging inside me is quenched simply by your gaze. When I dream it is of you, of you being an angel from the highest realm of heaven, coming to down to torture me with your beauty and grace. My mind and body are put to ease at your touch and my fears of the future vanish. I only feel truly safe around you. You are my savior, Claire, my light that shines through the darkness of my inhumanity, the glowing sphere of hope that this pain and suffering might end. Yet, when I look at you I also feel a lust, a need for you, to sink my fangs into your perfection and the indulge in the soothing blood of your soul, to throw you down and fill you up with me, to watch you climax and hear you scream my name. I feel these things at the same time and with them, both sides of me become at balance. I feel content and satisfied only then, only with you. So yes, I do love you, but I wish I didn't say that. I wish I could say more than a simple, I love you, because my love goes much, much deeper then the gift of words. It is fearsome and rough and yet gentle and kind. I love you across all of space and time, Claire; I love you more than blood itself. I assure you my dear that it is a never ending love and you never need worry that it may falter," he finished his soliloquy with rush of intense emotion and stared wistfully into my somber eyes.

I stared back, completely speechless that he, my crazy insane, vampire boss was capable of the kind of love he described. Such unfaltering, true love. The kind of love that was only mention in fairy tales, the ones knights in shining armor fought over and evil queens tried to steal. The kind of love that little girls dreamed of, the kind of love that only came with one's true soul mate and the one true love that so few had achieved. The timeless kind, the one that lasted forever. It was simply exhilarating.

Tears spilled over from my eyes and I found myself weeping uncontrollably. Myrnin reached over and gently pulled me into his comforting arms, rocking me back and forth. I felt him shaking and realized that he too was crying. I twisted around his grasp and searched his face for answers to how it was possible that he was feeling such emotion for me, such human compassion. I couldn't find any.

I pulled away from his grasp and slowly got up, claustrophobia settling on me in a dense cloud. I really needed some space, some breathing room. I wasn't ready for this, this…this…love to be so deep and complex, and so soon at that!

I went looking around to find my clothes, buying time. With a sigh I realized that they were all torn apart, and left behind in that strange library. I snapped my head back around and gave him a hard look. He stared back with slight confusion, probably because he had no idea why I pulled away so suddenly and now wanted to leave, but I pretend it was only because he didn't know what I wanted.

"I need to borrow some clothes Myrnin," I said sharply, looking through him with a bored expression. His face literally fell, his whole face covered in a mask of completely shock and slight horror. His expression turned into that of kicked puppy and he stared at me with hurt and bewilderment.

"Now Myrnin," I said softly and turned away, feeling terrible. I had no right to be like this, no right to treat him so harshly and so suddenly, but I needed to go. Now.

"Right, sorry," he said quietly. His face had turned into the learned indifference of a vampire at my rejection but he couldn't quite stop the angered look from reaching his eyes. He got up in one swift motion and spun out of the room at vampire speed and was back within a minute with an exceptionally long, black button down shirt and my brown belt from earlier which had somehow ended up here. He handed them over to me without meeting my eyes.

"I thought you might wear it as a dress. There's a bathroom through that door. Help yourself," he murmured and then was gone in a white blur. I sighed and walked over, into the bathroom, pulling the door closed behind me, feeling even worse than before because even though I had abruptly started acting appalling to him, he still went out of his way to find me something to wear that was well…nice. I felt sick and disgusted with myself.

I stared intensely into the mirror and watched my sallow expression stare back, finding every little imperfection and making me hate myself, using looks as a substitute for my actions. Yanking a comb through my knotted hair, pondering what I had just done and wondering if it was reversible, I once again found myself crying.

I regretted how brashly I had acted and with no apparent reason but while I lay in his arms I realized how silly this was, that I could be with him. It wasn't going to work out, at least not well, or more correctly, not well for me. Unless of course… but no that was the unthinkable. It could never work and the sooner I accepted that the better. I felt suffocated, smothered by all the terrible possibilities of how this story might end and I needed to get away, needed to get the hell out of this lab. I needed to breathe. It was all too much, way too much for me to deal with. I wasn't ready to accept his love for me, my love for him. I wasn't ready to face the truth quite yet but I had already hurt him, hurt him deeply and I felt once again felt the rolling waves of sickness in my stomach as his pained face raced across my vision. My thoughts flashed quickly back to the events of a few days before when I had hurt Shane. Strike two.

Go home, my mind told me gently, Tell him you're sorry and that you need to rest and have time to think things through.

I gave myself one more disgusted look in the mirror and turned to take my leave, my head spinning.

I walked out through the bedroom and awkwardly stood in the lab I knew all so well, one hand twisting around and around my wrist in a spinning fashion.

"I would really appreciate it if you could open me a portal home," I said sheepishly, without looking up to make eye contact, acting much to formal and polite for our familiar relationship.

"Of course and you don't need to come into work later this afternoon, since you have been here so long already I'm sure I've spoiled your plans for the entire day," his tone was clipped, formal. I dared to sneak a glance at his face and was hurt by the stoic look of it. It hurt even more to see that adorable mop of tangled dark brown curls mussed about his head and knowing that I couldn't reach out and touch them.

Which you have no right to be hurt by, my brain told me accusingly, you caused it.

Yeah, thanks brain, real confidence booster!

"Look Myrnin, I'm-," I began but was cut off.

"There's no need for any explanation or apology, it was childish to begin with. Although, I do expect you to continue working for me so I do hope that you can get over any…human feelings you might be experiencing," he said sharply without really looking at me. He was looking at me, but it was like he was looking through me, right through me and at the wall behind. That's all I had become to him now, a wall. His tone and diction still burned, even though I knew I was the cause of it. Calling everything childish! I tried to convince myself it was his own hurt words but my mind wouldn't let me accept that. And another thing I had noticed was how his flamboyant speech now was completely void of the many endearments that usually clouded it. I felt as if he no longer cared about me at all.

Oh, if you only knew how much I loved you and how much this was hurting me, but still I can't. I'm sorry.

"Right…Well then I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," I said, once again staring at the floor, not daring to see if he was looking at me, feeling off. At first I couldn't place it, everything but our tones were normal, or were they. His clothes. They were simple, plain, a basic pair of black dress pants and a white button-down shirt. No adornments or bunny slippers, no funky hats or frills from his favored Victorian era, just simple, modern clothes. The lab no long felt like a haven, everything felt off, felt wrong. I felt a sudden urge to sprint out of there like a manic but suppressed the chilled feeling.

"Good-bye," he stated simply and left the room in a semi-usual flourish.

A second later I felt the familiar hum of a portal and turned to my right to step through back into the Glass House. After a fleeting moment of that unnerving falling sensation I was standing in the living room. Chili bowls from the night before had been left on the coffee table and video games and movies were piled haphazardly on the ground in front of the X-box. The whole place smelled like chili and coke, with a slight scent of Eve's lingering perfume and Shane's cologne mixed in. It smelled like home.

"Hello home," I said with a smile, some of my former happiness returning. I felt the house warm up in response to my presence and I went over to pat the wall familiarly, "It's good to see that someone still loves me."

With a sigh I trudged into the kitchen, hoping a sugar rush would help my mood. I opened the fridge with a bang and began rummaging around for a coke when I heard the familiar clomp of Eve's combat boots coming down the stairs. Finding a coke, I pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with a little flop, waiting for her to come in the kitchen. With a creak the kitchen door flew open, showing Eve garbed in full on Goth glory. She was wearing a black, off the shoulder tee with images of daggers, maces and other nasty, assorted dangerous weapons printed across it over a black, long-sleeved, fishnet top, with a dangerously red, short skirt, ripped black leggings, and her favorite boots with the little skulls down the sides. Her black hair was pulled into her signature pigtails on the sides of her head and was held in place by two little, skull and cross-bone, ribbons. Her lips were painted the color of red death and her eyes heavily lined in black liner. She flashed me a huge grin, child-like excitement raging over her expression and she flew at me in a break-neck speed to deliver a bone-crushing hug. I winced slightly, but she didn't notice.

"CB, you're home! I was really starting to get worried about you! By the way we soooooo need to talk! Shane told me you guys got in a fight and you ran upstairs and he was too mad to check on you, the jerk, and next thing you're gone and Michael's saying that Amelie called, saying you're with Myrnin at the lab, and then of course Shane got even more pissy, but he's fine now don't worry, and then you didn't come home for a while so we were all planning our attack on that crazy ass boss of yours in case in he, like you know, ate you. Which of course we couldn't have happening to our youngest, most adorable housemate! Ah, anyways I'm glad you're home so I don't have to worry anymore," she prattled on in a bright, chipper voice at such a fast speed, that I could hardly understand half of it. I smiled weakly at her, too tired to give more than a noncommittal response to her chatter.

"And by the way what are you wearing? It is so cute! But since when do you wear dresses, and where in the world did you even find something like that in Morganville? Spill, cuz I really need to shop there," she said, leaning in like I was going to tell her some big secret. I pulled backed slightly unnerved by her glee and cast my eyes to the ground, worried about how she would react to my answer, knowing I didn't have enough time to come up with a reasonable lie.

"Well, um…well, actually its, um… well, its Myrnin's," I stammered, ashamed. I could feel my face heat up and knew it had become a bright red color.

Great, just great. Good job at playing it cool Claire, I mentally yelled at myself. Eve pulled back from me, blinking.

"Oh, um Claire, I'm really afraid to ask but…Why are you wearing Myrnin's clothes and what the hell happened to yours?" she said, her voice raising at the end and turning the last part into a yell. Her expression darkened with suspicion and she glared at me accusingly. I was prepared for her outbreak and had already come up with what I thought was a sufficient lie.

"Geez Eve, cool your jets! It's not like what you're starting to think! We were mixing acidic chemicals in order to come up with an alternate power source for a fundamental responder to prevent the combination of explosives and one of the valves failed causing a small backfire movement which ended up dousing both of us in chemicals and one of these chemicals reacts violently to water so it was impossible to wash, so I had to get rid of them and I ended up having to borrow some of his," I lied, hoping that my detailed response and use of big, complicating words would convince her it was the truth. I searched her eyes, looking for any sign that she doubted me but thankfully I couldn't find any.

"Right, sorry Claire," she looked at me sheepishly, "I can't believe I went there, woops! Well, no harm, no foul! Besides it's not that doubtful considering mister crazy pants himself, right? He is kind of attractive," She giggled and pranced over to the fridge, rummaging around to find the last remaining can of coke.

"Where are Shane and Michael?" I asked, faking concern but secretly hoping they weren't home. Somehow I just knew that Michael would know everything as soon as we were in the same room, he could probably smell him on me and if anyone saw the bite marks, or the bruises? I self consciously pulled up the collar of the shirt and made sure the sleeves covered my wrists.

"Don't look so worried CB! Shane's not so mad anymore and anyways he's at work and Michael's off doing something for Amelie," she said, a frown spreading across her face, "I'm not quite sure exactly what he's doing, but whatever it is, Amelie thinks its top priority." She let out a sigh and flopped down next to me.

"Everything with Amelie is top priority," I said with a slight giggle. Eve rolled her eyes and nodded.

"Still, she's got me so worried about him, ah that woman! On top of that he won't even tell me a single thing, not one thing! I mean I get Amelie treating me like I'm not important, but I really can't stand it when Michael's all, 'It's vamp business, don't worry about it', like I'm crazy or something." Eve looked at the ground and absentmindedly drew lazy circles around the top of her coke can with her fingertip, lost in thought. I only could feebly nod my head with consent for her feelings.

"Anyways," she started, trying (and failing) to look happy, "What were you and psycho vamp up to?"

"Well, we were, um…experimenting, cuz that's what we scientists do!" I finished with a false bravado, hoping she would overlook my stuttering.

"What kind of experimenting?" she asked, eyebrows arched in delusive question. I began to answer her, but a sudden spark rippled through the house like a shiver sending chills down my back. I abruptly stood up, feeling threatened.

Someone's here.

But not just anyone, I soon realized. The house did not feel threatened by whomever the intruder was, quite the exact opposite. The house felt, happy, relieved. That could only mean one person…

She swept into the room with her inhuman grace, leaving an unnatural chill in her wake. Two guards garbed in black were tailing her, moving to stand equally apart in unison, staring straight ahead without blinking, a focused menace about them. Her lush, white-blonde hair was tied back in an intricate mass of braids and twirls, elegantly ending in a smooth bun. Her clothes were white, of course, she never dressed differently, and were tailored to fit her small frame with symmetry. She wore a pencil skirt that was cut conservatively and a sophisticated jacket with gold buttons tracing down the front. White pumps covered her feet and were craft fully high yet still practical and orthodox. She glanced over us with a bored, distasteful expression, occupied with her own culture and grace. Her eyes cut through the room like diamonds and sent icy spikes in every direction she glanced. She looked proud and dignified and seemed quite out of place in our mismatched kitchen. Her beauty was not at all diminished by her alien looks and fierce eyes, no, it only strengthened her propriety. Amelie.

Her gaze landed on me with severity, somehow managing an intensity while still appearing to look through me. She tilted her head at me, giving me a look of disdain.

"I regard that we have acquired a requisite to converse with one another," she articulated, her face turning even more disgusted at that, "Attend me." Without another word she turned deftly and glided through the door with an impossible grace and ease, not bothering to see if I was following. I suppressed a groan and gave Eve an annoyed look, hoping she wouldn't see the fear clouding my vision. She looked back at me, worry marking her own face and stood up as if to follow me. I shook my head and she sat back down, her breathing accelerated and heavy. Trying to look reassuring I shot her a small smile to make it seem as if it was just a simple conversation about my work of something equally trivial, but we both knew it was something much, much more.

I got up and followed the ice queen out the door with not even an ounce of her dexterity and poise, a million curse words running through my head as I imagined the worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Myrnin's POV!

Her scream broke my heart.

It was the most ear piercing, gut wrenching, most animalistic scream I had ever heard, and I've heard a lot. But screams are screams and even though this one came from the one I love, that wasn't the worst part of it. It was that the scream sounded entirely inhuman and mixed with the way her body twisted and writhed on the floor… I gagged and looked away, attempting to compose myself.

I couldn't push away the image from my mind, nor the sound, but that was most likely because she was still screaming, not that I could forget that.

But what was I doing? I needed to be saving her, not worrying about my addled mind! I whipped back around and went to kneel by her side, desperately trying to think of something that would save her. Oh, but the body was so mangled, so ruined.

As I spun around I realized I had made a huge mistake. Unnoticed before, perhaps because of the noise, was the blood. The splatter of sanguine blood was everywhere, soaking into the wood, pooling in a deep puddle, splashed against the walls, against Amelie, against me.

I may no longer have been mad with sickness but that much blood, so openly everywhere was hard to deny myself of and I found myself once again in a mental battle against my bloodlust. Sinking to the ground, I gripped it tightly leaving behind finger shaped gouges. The blood poured over my hands dying them red and only furthering my thirst. I snarled, fangs slipping out and reached for her throat.

A white blur lunged for me, shoving me to the side and landed on top of me. Cold, pale hands wrapped around my neck and I found myself staring at glaring, grey eyes.

"No, Myrnin! Regain control of yourself!" she hissed, eyes wild yet still commanding. She held me there until she was sure I had regained enough sanity to control my hunger. Her movements staggered, she crawled back to the sleeping Claire and pulled her unmoving head into her messy lap, sobbing and moaning, losing all her icy regency and gaining a real fragility that was breathtaking.

Only as I crawled over to the source of the mess did I realize that the screaming had long since stopped and only a deafening silence remained. At that exact same moment I realized my little bird was dead.

"C-C-Claire," I stuttered out, sinking to my knees, "Claire…Claire, please Claire, please please, please, don't die, Claire, please, don't be dead."

It didn't matter what I said, deep down I knew that, she was dead. Stone, cold dead and in such a wrecked state that not even a cursed immortality could save her. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no, this was impossible. She couldn't be dead, where was I without her. Her warmth, her smiles, her little beating heart, all those quirky things she did when a sudden thought over took her, how her emotions were always so evident no matter how much she tried to hide them and that beautiful way she looked at me; those were things I couldn't live without.

Amelie reached over lightly touching my shoulder and whispered quiet words of comfort, telling me that it would all be fine, we would live on.

But I didn't want to.

That thought hit me like a literal slap to the face, Claire had saved my life and it just wasn't fair that she couldn't live while I could. She was my only reason left, everything else I had destroyed with my uncontrolled bloodlust. I had ruined everything good that came into my life and the one time I managed to keep my darker side hidden beneath and the cruel, cruel life takes it away unprovoked. But, no, oh, no. Her death was my entire fault, punishment for the crimes I had committed against so many, life's way of keeping the balance, causing me the pain I had caused against the public. I had never understood the panic I had caused but now I certainly did.

I had never understood when people said they needed air but I suddenly was gasping for it, a strangled moan ripped through my throat. I truly felt dead.

Now standing, I ran from the room, gliding down the stairs and silently pushing past a stunned Eve.

"What's going on?" she yelled, bewildered. I simply kept on moving, not even given a second thought as to whether I should answer her. Out the door, into the night, down the porch, across the lawn, through the streets, into the lab, I was running in circles. Ripping open door after heartless door, pawing through hundreds of bent-out pieces of cold, unfeeling metal, twisted, randomly colored wires and switches and gears in every shape and size, it had to be in here somewhere.

The voices, the taunting voices were back to laugh at my scattered efforts. I collapsed on the floor shaking, ripping my nails through my skin, screaming at them to stop the merciless talkings, laughings, lies.

-Eve's pov.

Myrnin, or at least what I thought was Myrnin, blew past me at that speed that only vampires could accomplish.

"What's going on?" I asked, scared because well when you hear screams and see vampires running nothing good is happening, "Myrnin! What the hell?"

By the time my sentence was finished he was long gone. I turned around trying, and failing, to get his attention and was very much startled to see a bloody handprint left behind on the wall. Oh fuck.

Claire.

"CLAIRE! CB!" I screamed, pounding up the stairs, my heart racing and this terrible feeling making knots deep in my stomach. Nearing the top I slipped, looked down and…

Oh My God. Blood.

My hand shot out, catching the railing just in time before I tumbled down the stairs. My shin hit the step with an audible thunk and pain coursed through my leg, but I barely felt it. That was a lot of blood, too much blood.

"Claire!" I screamed again, louder now, running faster than I thought possible. Now reaching the final landing, I spun around the corner, gripping the banister for support and sprinted down the hallway to the door to the secret room which had been left ajar.

Not again, oh God please, not again.

My head was chanting worried thoughts now and I was so preoccupied I almost missed the dead bodies lying at base of the steps.

Vampires, Amelie's personal guards by the looks of it. Both had been decapitated in a brutal way with the necks all broken and jagged. My hand covered my mouth, muffling a scream and barely stopping myself from puking.

Staggering up the steps now, trying to avoid slipping on the inky pools of blood while being half blind by mascara stained tears, I didn't see Amelie until I ran into her.

She was blocking my way, standing there, frozen almost and not in her usual manner. Her eyes were frantic, scared, and blood was spattered across her customary white clothes and had created a sticky coating over her hands. She was sobbing slightly, the tears trickling down from her eyes and her chest was heaving in panic and apprehensive emotion. Her hair was down and that too was red with blood, pink in some areas and was in a matted mess. All these things made her appearance fractured and very un-Amelie, but the strangest thing was that she was barefoot. Miss Proper, the Queen of Civility and Etiquette was absolutely, completely, totally without shoes. That stupid, little, insignificant detail was what scared me the most.

Why the hell would Amelie be barefoot?

"Stop," she said, her voice shaking slightly, ringing with a very human-like tremble. That scared me too.

"Oh God, Amelie, what's wrong? What happened? What happened to Claire? What did Myrnin do? What did you do? Dear Lord, Tell me that she's alright! She's fine, isn't she? It's just a scratch right? It's not her blood, is it?" I asked, my own terror rising and sending me into sheer frenzy. The questions came pouring out of me in a jumbled fall for never, not once in all my time in Morganville, not when I found out that Oliver was a vampire, not when Frank's biker friend cut Michael's head off, not when Bishop showed up at our house, not when I watched sweet, innocent Sam die, not when my brother stabbed Shane and not one single time when Shane had gone crazy and tried to kill my boyfriend, had I been this afraid because never, not once had Amelie been this afraid. Amelie never lost her cool, that was kinda her thing, and I knew that if she had we were in for the scariest ride of our lives.


	6. Chapter 6

Amelie's pov

I sat there, holding what remained of her lifeless body in my arms, and cried. I actually, truly cried. Not sobs or a few glassy tears, but streams and streaks and canals of tears racing down my face. This was not pretty crying, this was nothing-being-held-back crying and I was sure it looked very unlike me.

I wasn't used to this. I was old, very old and a vampire, a combination that was cause for callousness. I didn't feel like this, I was incapable of it, or so I thought.

The pain itself was considerable and was something that I welcomed. It was like someone was tearing at my chest and stomach, trying to yank me down and I felt like I was choking on air as I desperately tried to stop the oncoming rush of tears that seemed like a never-ending waterfall. I wasn't made for this, this, this utter break-down, this total collapsing of walls that I had spent centuries perfecting. Claire, like my only daughter now lay dead , cold as ice.

Myrnin's pov

The voices had stopped for awhile now, but I was afraid to move, afraid that if I moved they would know I was alive and they would come back. No, it was much better to stay still, to stay play-dead.

Claire.

Her name brought back shocking bolts that seared into me, it made me remember. How could I ever even forget? She was everything, my literal everything. I loved her with all my dead heart. I had even told her that much. Why didn't she say anything? Why wasn't she responding?

I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, CLAIRE, I LOVE YOU! I shouted over and over and over. Why wasn't she answering? I loved her! Why couldn't she love me?

Oh right, because she was dead.

Claire. I love you. I love you, Claire. I'll save you. I promise.

I uncurled myself from my little ball and pulled my bloodied fingers out of my torn hair. I could tell I was a mess, but I really couldn't care less. I had to find what I was looking for. I was convinced that this was the only thing that could save her, could save that mutilated, destroyed body. Images flashed back into my mind, her leaving, heading for the stairs, a dark, black flash moving fast, too fast for even my vampire eyes to see and then red, blood red, red blood, red roses, she was dead.

Where was it? Where was that goddamned machine? It was small, so small. Why did I have to make it so small? Ah, so many questions, so little answers, too much time, too much love. When had life become this complicated?

In a box, in a drawer, around the corner and behind the door, it was nowhere. Gone. Vanished. Dead. NO! It had to be somewhere! I wouldn't lose it, couldn't lose it! It just as tied to me as Claire was. Oh Claire, oh poor sweet, innocent Claire!

I mourned for a moment, shaking with grief. Too much emotion, I'd always had it and I always would. It would kill me. Eventually.

But not today and not as long as I had Claire! Which I didn't now, but I would and soon! Grr, rawr, bite, I wanted to bite. Where was it? Why did it have to be so damn small? Oh, wait. It wasn't small, not at all! It was big, huge even, almost as big as Ada's machine. Ada.

I distinctly remember what it felt like to lose her the first time and the second even more sharply. It had been terrible, painful, agonizing in ways that were unknown to almost all because so few had ever caused it. Few had lost control of that madness that hunger and killed someone so loved, so cherished. Sure, it had been an accident, but not in the way that mattered. I had ripped her open with my hands, my teeth. I had killed her and hadn't cared, not for hours, not for days until Amelie came to find me.

I think that's the first time that she was truly afraid of the disease. Before it had been real enough, sure, but only a nuisance, a flitting bug to swat at. It had been years away from destroying anything and vampires are simply terrible at planning for the distant future. Until then it had been a distant future.

I swayed and leaned against the table, momentarily losing myself to the past. Pasts were awful things! It had always been my deepest advice not to have one. Best to forget, to move on, to grow in a sense. Remember the lessons and forget the teacher. Argh, pasts! Who needed them?

Well they were certainly good at reminded, good at reminding pain. Pain.

Claire!

I need to work, work faster, find. Find that machine thing-y. Now where was it? Big, yes. It was large, it was commodious. Which made perfectly perfect sense because you were, well, in it. Well, sort of.

Aha! I found a key of sorts that really wasn't a key.

BTGD, LTGU.

Well what did that mean? B,B,B…B, B,B,b,b,b,b,B,B! Yes, B, Big! As in, big things go down. Down down down down, always down. So down I went, ripping at the carpet covering the entrance to the basement and grinding my teeth while I waited for the hand scanner to go, then jumping, falling, landing, running.

Moving past the really big machine with all its lovely clacks and clanks, I headed towards the back, looking for a hidden door. I spotted it without much looking, I did put it there myself after all, and attempted to open it and OW!

Silver handle. Smart for me, stupid for me, pain for all. Except those pesky humans, nothing worked on them. Well, except for bullets. Those tended to work with rather satisfying results!

Covering my hand with my sleeve I again tugged on the door, relying on my surprising strength to wrench it open. Inside it was dark and dusty and cobwebs hung from every nook and cranny. I held out my fingers to a frightened spider that hung from the rafters and reminded me so much of dear Bob, but it skittered off into the shadows and out of sight.

The state of the room was decay, which really didn't bother me much since my lab went through several phases of it, and most of it contents fit right along with it. All the junk shoved into crumbling heaps and dirty, muddy puddles of disintegrated mass. All except for a shining metal box that shone like diamond among rocks, glowing almost, in the center of the room.

The box was about seven feet in height, just large enough to stand in and about ten feet long and two feet wide. A metal grate closed off the inside of it, but you could see through to the paraphernalia inside.

On one end was an engine of sorts, filled with bubbling green liquid that oozed and burped in a disgusting way and held cables and wire in all sorts of shapes and colors. They were all connected to the center which was magnum hot, kept at the perfect temperature to turn the gold bars that had been placed in there centuries ago into a molten syrup that rose and fell as if pushed by an unseen tide. The other end held a massive control table full of knobs and bronze gears that were purely for looks of course! In between were five red velvet seats that I had stolen from a king some eight hundred years ago in France, I believe. He hadn't been a very good one. Amelie hated him, killed him.

I ripped open the grate without pause and sat down in the seat closest to the control panel and pulled a lever on my right. The machine hummed to life under me and emitted a welcoming whir.

Yes, yes, yes, YES! It was working! It would work! It was going to work! Everything was going to be fine and I was going to save Claire. Again!

Eve

Amelie stood blocking my path in her fragmented state with a look in her eyes that told me everything. Everything I didn't want to know.

"What-" I stopped, my voice breaking. I already knew what had happened. "She's dead isn't she." It wasn't a question. I knew.

This time, somehow, was worse, way worse, than the first time and I stumbled back, stunned. I felt numb, cold. It didn't feel real... yet. It was like a nightmare, just another stupid nightmare that had haunted my dreams for years now. I couldn't accept this as reality. It had already happened, she was fine now. This was all just a dream.

Amelie nodded her head in a brief, curt nod and then... lost it. She slumped down, grasping the banister with all her strength and fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap, sobbing and choking with tears. "Amelie?" I called out, afraid to approach her. Her head shot up to stare at me with wild eyes that held such pain. "Amelie!" I was yelling at her now, begging her to get up. No, no, no, no! It had to be a dream!

But it wasn't.

I too collapsed, crying uncontrollably. Not Claire, not again! I was crying too hard to see, all my sarcasm and wit gone. I had nothing to left to protect me; my usual goth armour felt only like a useless facade.

I was helpless, hopeless. It was much too obvious now that Claire wasn't going to magically spring up as a ghost this time; this was really the true end of her. I knew!

Leaving a still sobbing Amelie, I fled the stairs, running straight for the front door only pausing to grab my keys before I was out and down the street, almost into my car.

I had seen Claire for the last time.

Myrnin

Still vibrating with my sudden on take of euphoria, I was soaring above everything, buzzing on an emotional high that I so often found in the other direction. So sad down things are, so boring. Too much pressure. Too much pressure up. The world's difficult.

The machine kept alive beneath me, making a rather pleasant purr of whirs and clicks and snaps and the popping sounds of boiling chemicals. Home. I suddenly remember the pet name I had so appropriately appointed to my little pet project. Home. Because that's what she was really. A way home. To my home. My real one. My old one. Back to a time of training and leaning and being. Such a nice state. Leaning. Teaching is much too hard. Always best to stick with learning. Learning never did anyone much harm... well except death. But perhaps one should be more careful with the knowledge they learn. Tsk, Tsk, such disrespect for the master.

I almost left right then and there. It was ready, ready to fly in a manner, er, at least ready to run. I could go back and get her right now if I wanted.

Ahh, best not to forget my mistress. She would be quite angered if I left her behind, what's the saying? Ladies first? No? Well, she must go, must come with. Time-tock, ticking fast. Running, losing, tripping, falling. NOW! No, my mistress must stay her anger for surely she will understand the urgency of leaving now! I love her, I love my little Claire. Love comes first. So great is love it must come first. But no!

I staggered out of the machine, nervously rubbing my eyes; out of habit of course. I needed to get Amelie. I couldn't leave without her. Besides I believe I could do her quite a favour that she might intensely appreciate. She's been so kind to me, has put up with so much. I must pay her back. That's the only way to be free of her. I don't like being in debt to someone. She has saved me.

Payment doesn't matter. I love Claire. I need to get to her! Screw rational.

I was pacing now, something I always did when I was on the verge of a pure manic state. That didn't bode all too well. For all possible ways I was cured of this Bishop virus that made me lose all control at sporadic rate, but it didn't cure the monster within, the disease I was born with.

Vampires are purely physical beings. Most think that because of our enhanced minds it's a mental thing, but see, the brain is a physical thing. All things are physical. Even ideas. Vampires, vampirism, isn't mental. Just physical. Can't cure what doesn't exist. I don't. I do. Where's Claire? Where's Amelie? We need to find her soon. NOW!

Amelie

Eve had left me, something I relished and despised at the same time. I wanted my space to mourn of course, but the human feel, the presence, the warmth was always a welcoming thing. So happy, so bright, so alive they were. They were everything I am not. I envied them. We all did.

I was still a crumpled mess; ruined clothes, disarrayed hair, broken nails and blood, blood, blood. Blood in my hair, blood on my clothes, blood on my skin, in my mouth, soaking beneath me on the hard wooden floor. I hated blood, hated the mess it made. Well no, I didn't hate it, just hated the mess.

I sighed. All this feeling and crying and being so emotional wasn't going to get me anywhere. I was a disaster and I had much more to do than sit for hours and mourn over Claire and something I couldn't control.

I jumped up at that moment, overtaken with a sudden thought, What the hell had happened to Claire?

I couldn't believe that all my hazed fear and pain had allowed me to so completely forget what killed her in the first place, or rather the fact that I had no idea what could have killed her, could have destroyed her so quickly and brutally.

My first thoughts were at Oliver, that he believed by assassinating her he might gain something, but that was quickly ruled out as I realized that I hadn't heard and single thing, hadn't smelt any scents, hadn't felt a stirring or a portal opening. All of a sudden something killed my poor, sweet, innocent, dead Claire. Why Claire? I could've actually loved her maybe. Maybe not. I was never good with love.

What we had done washed over me and I began to really sort out coherent thoughts instead of a whirling and twirling mass of pain that grinded against my mind as sharp as glass. I had acted brashly and without reason, partially to prove to Myrnin that she was mine and that I could exert that power in any way I wished, but also based on an adolescent wondering and fascinating that had been haunting me since I had melt the strange, brilliant girl with the red hair.

And now she was gone.

And I had absolutely no idea what had happened.

None at all.

But she was dead and gone and I couldn't afford to continue this brash and reckless behaviour that obviously had caused a serious effect of a amnesia on me, something I and my people could not benefit from. No matter how much I was hurting I still had affairs to look after and certainly Claire's death was a tragedy, but focus must go into finding what killed her and eliminating a perceived threat, if that's what it really was.

Oh god and that was the last thing that I wanted to do. All I wanted was to hold Claire in my arms and tell her that I could protect her and that I really did care and that no matter how callous I have acted it's only the mandatory side of me that comes with my position. I really cared for Claire and now, like all my distant loves and memories, was a thing of the past and gone.

I sighed again, out of human habit for external emotion and retreated back into my bleak thoughts. Slinking back into a slouched sitting position I figured I could afford to forget the rest of the world for a few more hours.

~XXX~

At a later time I was unaware of a hand shook me awoke.

"Amelie! Amelie! We need to go. It's solved, it's fixed! Depart! NOW!" Myrnin called to me, rudely shoving me into the harsh reality of being awake and aware. My heart ached for Claire.

"What Myrnin? I don't-I can't- I- I don't have time for another one of your useless experiments. I have things that need accomplishing," I said rather sharply and without real reason beside that I wanted to drift back to a fake realm.

"No Amelie, I'm up-DOWN! I'm down, I went down. It was there, we can work use! It works and well that's all really," Myrnin blathered on like a total fool, barely being able to form a single organized thought. I pushed myself up off the cold hard wood, now sticky with old blood and focused on the ragged face of my old and dear friend. My only trustworthy ally left.

He was in that manic state that I had come to recognize as him coming on to something, of that brilliant mind sparking into full inferno. He was almost literally glowing, vibrating with an unseen energy that wound around the entire universe. It was from this look that I always gained hope. Once he had this look I knew deep in my soul that everything would be alright because Myrnin had the answer to the problem. I dreaded the day when he couldn't solve one. That would really be quite an end, as much of an end as an immortal can have. A figure of speech that was really. I love his hope. It's so adorably human of him.

"Myrnin, be still and put words to it," I stated calmly.

Clires pov

He was weirdly calm. There was no way she could resist that pull. It was like a black hole, and she was standing on the event horizon.

"Claire."

It was a whisper in the hurricane that roared around her, but she recognized the sound. Myrnin. That was Myrna's voice.

"Here!" She screamed, as the void pulled her away. "Myrnin, help me! Help!"

The spinning peaces of reality around her seemed to slow down. She saw herself reflected in one side of a jagged shard, and then it turned, and she saw Myrnin's face in it. He looked worried, and there were lines of of effort around his mouth that she had never seen before.

His hand reached out to her, but it was as if he was trapped behind the glass; his hand slapped against it, and then the spinning shard turned again, and she lost him.

Claire twisted. There, in another piece, she saw him again, reaching out.

"Take it," He was trying to tell her. It wasn't a voice-it was something else, a kind of whisper moving inside her, like blood in her veins. Only she no longer had blood, or veins. This was cumming out of her very core, the thing that had survived her body.

Her soul.

"Take my hand."

She couldn't. He was on the other side of that glass, and the pieces were moving, and she was being dragged inch by inch into the dark.

Then she saw Shane in one of the spinning, glittering shards. He was on his back, propped up, staring out of the shred of reality, and he looked so agonizingly alone.

"Take my hand, Claire-do it now! " Myrnin's whisper sounded desperate now. Anguished. This was hurting him, too.

She kept her gaze on Shane's face , but she lunged for Myrnin's hand as another piece of reality slid past her.

Her fingers broke the cold, icy surface and touched his.

And reality came back together. She could still see the cracks, hear the awful noise of the darkness beyond that, but Myrnin's hand twisted and closed around her wrist in an unbreakable hold, and she fell, and fell, and fell. . . .

And took a breath.

A real breath.

It hurt.

Claire hurt.

Her heart beat, and it was like wave after wave of fire. Her breath scraped against her lungs, and it was like sandpaper against her throat. Pain. Her life was giving her pain. And there was something cold moving through her veins, soothing her pain. Cold and foreign. It had stillness like death, the promise of eternity. But the vibrancy and passion of life. It didn't feel bad. Just different. But she knew it had a dark side to it, because she knew what it was.

It was Myrnin's blood.

*She could almost see him. Not him, physically, but his mind. His consciousness. His soul. The thing that made Myrnin, Myrnin. It was too much. Too much pain, too much color, too much sorrow, too much joy and loneliness and hunger and love. Too much of everything. This was the landscape he lived in, this was the wonderland behind the looking glass that made him what he was.

*He scared her, and charmed her, and made her want to cry.

*There was no way she could do it. No way she could make her heart work through all of this, her lungs breathing. The ice in her held a kind of peace, a release from pain. It was wonderful. Not exactly death, and not exactly life, but something of both, and it had the sharp clarity of eternity. It was so tempting to just fall into it, to see and experience something new, something so few people in history had ever seen.

She just had to let go.

"Then let go. I'll catch you." Myrnin's cool hands were on her forehead, and his cool voice was inside her head. "Let go, Claire. Trust me."

Myrnin. She couldn't do this to Myrnin. Just the thought of him made her heart beat against the cold, pound harder and harder. She sensed this was killing her, but so was Myrnin's blood, in it's own way. She couldn't win.

No matter what, she would end up hurting him.

"Please, Claire. I can't hold this forever. It's already been far too long as it is."

She was torn, but really there had never been any choice. She took one last breath, and it hurt, God it hurt! But she savored the hurt, the hurt with all the pain and beauty and struggle and victory of life, just one last breath, and then. . . .

She fell, her heart stopped, and Myrnin caught her, and she died.

Again.

There is no possible way to describe those first milliseconds as a vampire. There are not words to say the things Claire experienced in that fraction of a fraction of a second. The English language simply did not have the capability.

She opened her eyes, and was struck by the particular way they focused. Instead of having the regular perifical vision, she could now focus on her whole field of vision. For instance, while her eyes were facing directly upwards, she could see all four walls around her with the same clarity and detail as the ceiling. She blinked, although she no longer felt the need to, and had the unique experience of seeing both through and inside of her eyelids with perfect clarity.

"Maybe Myrnin knows a language that can describe this. I'll have to get him to teach it to me sometime." Claire thought. One thought among many. Her mind was not so limited as it had been as a human, and even as she thought a million and one thoughts, she was acutely aware of everything around her.

She could feel tantalizing heat radiating from two other forms in the room, and one cold. . . .no, not cold presence, not exactly. She was the same temperature, after all. It was electricity that burned cold. This was how her mind perceived the unseen presence of vampires now. This was what Myrnin was too her.

The hairs stood up on her body as she observed him in this new metaphysical sense, saw finally how incredibly enormous his. . .his authority? His power? No, that wasn't quite the word for it, but it was close. How enormous his power was. It was what she sensed in the strongest vampires of Morganville when they pulled out all the mojo they had and somehow began a struggle without using their body's. They used their minds.

She understood this was not a result of when their minds had touched earlier. No, that was much more personal. Rather, she would feel this with every vampire she came across.

"This must be what Michele meant," Claire thought. "When he said that vampires had an instinctive grasp of where they stood with other vampires."

All this came to her in less than three seconds.

She herd Myrnin move, he staggered, stepped back, and fell. Strong as he was, what he did was not an easy thing. Claire closed her eyes, suddenly remembering that Shane was there. He had so far done nothing at all. As far as Claire could tell with her new senses, he had just frozen there, not moving the whole time. She didn't want to open them, not yet.

She didn't want to see him see her like this, not when even she hadn't come to terms with it yet.

She could feel Eve's uncertainty. She hesitated, and then she herd her walk over to Myrnin.

". . . Are you OK?"

She could hear the fabric of Myrnin's clothes shift, and the soft smack of skin on skin as he grabbed Eve's arm, vampire fast. Claire's eyes snapped open, and it was the oddest thing, because she could actually see her eyes turn red, as a growl ripped out of her throat, oddly the most natural thing she could have done.

Her body twisted, blurred, and she came up in a crouch, eyes narrowed at her crazy boss, as she prepared to attack him, to defend her friend, her human.

"Mine." Claire thought at him. "Mine. You can't have her."

But then, she sucked in a breath to tell him this, that he most certainly could not have what was clearly her's, but then the smell hit her. Coying, sweet and salty. The blood pulsed just below Eve's skin, flushed and mesmerizing. And suddenly, her aim wasn't Myrnin.

The two hungry, red eyed vampires turned their gaze on Eve.

She misses by inches as Myrnin slams her body into the ; solid cols hard floor . " I you want blood , just ask , you don't take it from strangers so don't take it from your friend"

His face expressionless , he takes two bags of blood out from behind his back and held it out to her.

Her eyes turned blood red , as her mouth crashes down , splitting the bag in half .

myrnin didn't flinch when Claire darted foreword at vampire speed, grabbed the bag from him, and flashed back to the window. She completely forgot about Shane, amazingly, and found her focus captured by the blood bag. She bit down, noticing for the first time the delicate, feline fangs that extended past her lips. The liquid exploded on her tong, and her eyes widened.

And then drifted closed in ecstasy.

The world was quiet. Quiet and dull. Sensation faded. Nothing was real anymore. Nothing could hold her here anymore. The ties that connected her to this world drifted away, and nothing was left. Just the blood. It was the only thing tethering her to reality anymore.

Imagine the soft brush of silk. Flowers bending in the wind. A baby's first laugh. A butterfly's wing beats. Now imagine your taste buds could experience these sensations. Imagine the sweetest, most sensational thing you've ever tasted, and multiply that by the biggest number you can think of. Do that, and you will come as close as your human mind can possibly conceive of what blood is to a vampire.

It was life. Pure and simple.

Something was off, though. She know it, even in her dazed euphoria. It was. . .stale, somehow. She suspected it was better straight from the source. Her eyes opened, and she dimly noted the film of red covering her vision. Things still seemed slow and faded, the whole of her mind concentrating on the gentile sucking motions of her mouth as she drained the blood, but she fought past that to look around.

Eve wasn't in her sight, but she herd movement in the hallway. The clink of metal, the thump of wood, and . . . . and a rhythmic sort of pounding that she couldn't didn't worry about it, though. There was simply too much other stuff to grab at her attention for her to focus on any one thing for too long. Like the light bulb flickering overhead. Or the taste of blood. Or the shadows cast through the window behind her. Or the taste of blood.

Or the taste of blood.

Or Myrnin.

She noticed him. He was so still. So very, very still. And his eyes were wide and deep and scary. She felt she could drown in them at that moment. He watched her and she watched him, and they both watched each other watching the other.

Claire sucked, blinked, sucked again, and realized the bag was empty. She wondered how long she and Myrnin had been locked together in each others eyes. She didn't look away as she let the blood bag drop to the floor. Time seemed oblivious to them all. She dimly noted that Shane was looking at them now, watching them watch each other, face cast in shadow.

She couldn't bring herself to care.

A small, predatory smile graced Myrnin's lips and his eyes burned red.

Boots stamped in the hall. Eve marched in, a false smile slapped on her face, and dropped a duffel bag on the hardwood floor. Stakes rattled and silver clinked from within.

"OK!" She said, slapping her hands together and rubbing them mischievously. "I'm going out to get Michele."

Myrnin's soft laughter drifted through the air. "Look at the sky, little bird." He whispered, too low for human ears. "Look at the stars."

laire walked out onto the grass, head tipped to the sky. She stumbled backwards, trying to center herself for a better view. This was the first time sense waking up that she felt off balance. "Three, four. . . .five. . . .and that's the Lagoon Nebula." She muttered under her breath. ". . .and . . .and. . . .whats that? Is that. . .? Is that . . .? Myrnin, that's Kowal-Vavro." She said louder, awe dominating her face. "Myrnin, you can't see that without a telescope. You would have to have pupils at least 9 mm wide."

Myrnin was suddenly right next to her, head tilted back with a small smile on his face. "Yes." He said. "I had almost forgotten how beautiful it was. It had become so commonplace to me." He looked at her then as she looked at the sky, that same small smile on his face. "Beautiful." He whispered.

and then he was gone , just like he came. As I walk out to fine him I feel a sharp stabbing pain coming from my chest before I have time to think I look down a see , a stake , his face looms over me.

" I told you I don't like vamps , let alone you becoming one , fange bagging whore".


	7. Chapter 7

Being staked actually wasn't all that bad at first.

There was the cold. The stillness. The stifling helplessness. But no pain. For that, Claire was grateful.

After the initial fire ripping through her torso, Claire had gone completely numb. Sensation became muted. Touch, sight, taste, all coyed and cloudy, all except for sound. Sound was mercilessly detailed in comparison to her other deadened senses, and song drifting through the air, horrible and alluring. She felt, in that moment, that if she could get just a little bit closer, hear a little bit harder, she would be able to make out the words of song.

Time passed. Seconds melted into hours. Hours became days. She started to feel the pull of the void Myrnin had saved her from. She became aware of song fading into the distance. She missed it. It kept her company in the weeks she'd been gone. Claire's mind was in the place the eye did not see. She was in the place the eye did not want to see. Would she ever awaken? Had there ever been a time when she had been awake? She couldn't remember anymore.

It was after the first couple months that the voices started.

Ash in the wind. Some said. You are but ash in the wind.

You'll never leave. Some taunted. You will stay here with us. Forever.

Myrnin will come. One said.

Yesss! Others echoed. The creator will come!

Call to him. Sing in his blood. He will come.

Call him, dear one. Bring him to us.

Call him!

Call him!

Call him!

She was lost in the darkness.

. . . . .

Years. It had to have been years later when the stake was finally, finally removed. And. . .Oh! There was the pain she had been expecting. Delightful, horrable, wonderful pain. A break in the voices and the darkness and the emptiness. She gasped as the void reluctantly withdrew from her, leaving no trace of it's murky tendrils. Sight returned in a rush, and then sound, mercifully free of song, and touch, and. . .oh! Oh, dear god. What was that taste?

It glowed. She glowed. There were no words. She didn't even try. Couldn't try. She held warmth in her hand, and was drinking it down greedily. The warmth spread, first to her throat and then to her torso, through her bleeding heart and chest cavity. It healed and gave life. And then it was gone.

Claire's eyes snapped open and she gave a desperate grab at the still bleeding wrist before she came back to herself and realized, suddenly, that this was Shane. Oh, god. This was Shane's blood she sipping, Shane's life she was draining. She dropped out of the defensive, greedy crouch she had sunk into and fell back to the pavement, staring with horror at the bloody, bleeding arm Shane clutched, wrapping with torn up strips of cloth in a detached, almost medical manner. Much too calm.

He didn't look up, but answered her silent question. "It seemed the least I could do, considering." He gestured to the wooden stake lying a few feet away, dripping with black blood. A shudder passed through Claire.

"Why?" She asked.

He blinked at her. "Why what?"

"Why," She said, "Did you stake me?"

"Oh." Shane cleared his throat

" well , why " claire was getting annyoyed now

" I CANT SATND YOU LIKE THIS , knowing , knowing that you two are in-love , or that he's been biting , he doesnt love you , he just wants you for your blood and now it looks like your fresh out of that".

"so , this whole thing is about me being with Myrnin now , after you broke my heart , saying i was cheating , and now cos you cant stand that im happy being a vampire being with myrnin you want to take it all away , well arn't ypu sad" claire got up agryly chucking the stake away

, as she walked away , to home not to the glass house , but to the lab , to myrnin , her one true love that can accept her for her , and only her.


End file.
